I’ve decided to challenge myself to see how little I can spend on food each week and still eat well. The inspiration for this decision had absolutely nothing to do with IE, but it has had some interesting side effects on my IE practice. But more on that later and first to what I’m sure is the primary question, which is why?
As I’ve stated before, I consider myself something of a foodie. I know it’s not for everyone (nor do I think everyone should follow my philosophy), but personally, I think it’s better for my health, my body, and the planet to eat organic and local, whenever possible. Michael Pollan is my hero. Although I stray as much as the next person, I believe it’s better to eat whole grains and plenty of produce. I think that, as good as it sometimes tastes, American fast food culture is a contributor to many of the health issues we face in this nation. I think high fructose corn syrup is poison. I really do. And those beliefs don’t have anything to do with wanting to be thinner.
But an odd thing happened when I started IE. I stopped wanting to eat healthfully and started wanting to eat whatever junk I could shove into my mouth. Well, that’s not exactly true. My logical brain wanted to eat healthfully, but my lizard brain would have none of it. If it was junk, I wanted it. Cooking? God forbid. Couldn’t bear the thought of it. I think that because those foods were always so forbidden on my diets, they were all I could think of. Combine that with a case of severe overwork, leaving me far too exhausted to cook, and fast food, prepared food, snack foods – whatever was quick, easy, and tasty – were my best friends for six months. But finally getting some R&R in December got me back to the place where I was ready to start doing some cooking again. And the desire for junk also started to wane. And then a couple of things inspired me to commence this challenge.
First, some time ago, I came across a blog called the 1940’s Experiment. Written by an English woman who was also a 1940’s buff, it was her attempt to lose 100 pounds by sticking to a diet of what she would have gotten as rations during World War II. I was intrigued by the blog, not as a method of dieting, of course, because I was already over diets by the time I found it, but because one of the cornerstones of her philosophy, as I understood it, was that people ate more healthfully back then because they were forced to eat less processed foods. That, I agree with.
More recently, I came across a blog called Not Eating Out in New York, which is in no way a diet blog, but rather, which chronicle’s one New Yorker’s attempt to stop eating out completely, and cook at home. I didn’t want to stop eating out completely, but I did want to cook more and eat out far less than I do.
But the straw that tipped the scales was two articles I read on the website Salon.com. One was about how Bill Clinton had gone vegan and was now the best advertisement for the diet there could be, since he had been so well known for his bad diet before. The basic theme was that if the guy who was famous for chowing down on McDonald’s while he was in the White House could go vegan, anyone could do it. The other article was by one of the website’s regular columnists about how she had drastically changed her diet by following the advice of famous food columnist and cookbook author, Mark Bittman, and essentially going vegan most of the day, except for at dinner. The basic theme was that if she could do it in her rough and tumble New York neighborhood, that it was a sign to her that healthy eating and ingredients that previously had only been available at health food or gourmet stores were becoming more commonplace and more widely available.
Now, I have respect for the vegan lifestyle, but it’s not for me. So I’m not trying to be vegan, or even vegetarian; I’m just trying to eat better. And I believe that I can with a modicum of effort. So, it wasn’t as if these articles were some sort of revelation to me. Rather, it was the reader comments that spurred me to action. Basically, they were of the sort that I have seen repeatedly in many other forums when similar topics arose, namely, that it was impossible to eat healthfully if you didn’t have a fortune to spend at Whole Foods and either a personal chef to cook for you, or a spouse that earns enough to allow you to stay home so you can spend all day in the kitchen. This theory, I soundly reject. I think it takes planning, and something that the vast majority of people seem to be unwilling to do these days, which is cooking, and it does take some time, yes, but not as much as people think, I believe. But the question was whether I was willing to put my money where my mouth was (literally). So, I figured I needed to put up or shut up, and therein my challenge was born. I would challenge myself to see how well I could eat on an extremely modest budget each week.
How’s it been going? It’s definitely challenging, but not really too bad, actually. At least not so far. And I’ll tell you more about that in days to come, including about the interesting impact on my IE practice.
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